Chapter 17
The sun set. In the President’s huge office, it seemed that all that was left was Lin Qian’s breathing.
She looked up quietly and looked again, and saw Li Zhicheng sitting on the table, still with the departmental working papers with a nonchalant expression.
He had sat for an hour—ever since receiving the bidding result.
It was already time to clock out, and the top floor was almost deserted. Lin Qian was demoralized, cupping her chin with one hand and one hand pointlessly stroking the small green leaves on the table, again and again and again… …
Finally, Li Zhicheng stood up. Lin Qian immediately sat up straight and put on a very quiet and natural expression, looking in his direction. He turned off the computer, put on his coat, and walked towards the door.
Lin Qian stood up: “President.”
Li Zhicheng’s eyes looked up at her. His black eyebrows were like ink renderings, his gaze very clear in the light, extraordinarily quiet.
After pondering for a moment, he said: “Tomorrow at 10 o’clock in the morning, convene a meeting of all the executives.”
“Yes.” Lin Qian replied straightforwardly, then asked “What shall I say? ”
“The Group’s next development plan.” His voice was as strong and steady as before.
Lin Qian was stumped for words, before she smiled and replied: “Ok, I’ll inform them early tomorrow morning. ”
Li Zhicheng nodded and turned to leave.
Lin Qian: “Going to your home?”
Li Zhicheng reached up the collar of his coat, face unmoving: “No. Going out for a walk. ”
Lin Qian stood and watched him walk away, into the elevator, as the doors swung shut. She sat down, looking in front at the closed office door, dark and polished, before heaving a long sigh. Then she languidly lay on the table.
——
It was not yet dark, and the sunset’s afterglow lit the entire industrial park. Li Zhicheng stepped out of the building, looked, and shoved his hands into pockets as sporadic workers pa.s.sed by, going behind the rows of plants.
Since taking office, he would often walk around in the Park. Because he seldom showed up and his he was normally in a hurry, but few people recognized him.
At the industrial plant’s security booths, a bunch of people were sitting and chatting with Gao Lang. They stopped talking until Li Zhicheng walked a bit away, then some stared and others spoke.
At this time, a forklift worker whispered, “I hear that the big Mingwhatever project didn’t go through, is that true?”
Another guard immediately replied: “It’s true. You didn’t know? It was the news all over today! My sister-in-law’s in the Administrative Department, said it completely failed! ”
As Gao Lang heard this, his forehead creased, and they asked each other: “If Ai Da’s like this, what are we going to do?”
They sighed deeply.
Twilight had descended a bit further, and there were fewer pedestrians in the Park. The crowd around Gao Lang’s security booth was also unusually quiet. He’d pulled at his hair so often it looked like a bird’s nest; he was worried about Li Zhicheng, but aimless as he was, didn’t know what to do.
At the same time, beside him another guard stared ahead at the plant and said, “Hey, what’re they doing? ”
Gao Lang followed his gaze and looked, and several other security guards also looked puzzled and stood up.
In the drooping curtain of the night, several dozens of workers in blue uniforms, almost sullen, came marching towards the office in a mob.
——
Lin Qian stepped out of the building when it was almost completely dark. There was some noise around, but she was still thinking of things, so she didn’t pay it mind. She’d gone to the ground floor and was in the middle of the parking lot when she suddenly felt something behind her.
She turned to go, when suddenly her eyes were staring at –
A large group of workers in blue, not far from her, being violent and rushing towards the building. Lin Qian being keen-eyed, spotted some of them carrying iron bars in their hands. Even more striking is that several security flew over from one side, and the leader of their pack, the fastest runner, was Gao Lang!
They stopped before the workers, and Gao Lang spoke up: “What do you want? Where are you going? ”
The leader of the group, over 30 years old, was a tall man, his face fiercely horrific. One of them shouted: “You security small fries step aside! We’re here for the President, don’t obstruct us! WE must right the wrongs according to the people’s wishes! They owed arrears of wages, they gang up against us, even though we’re worked here for years, no matter whether we live or die! We want to get a statement!”
The leader’s voice was loud and hard, and some others echoed him. Others booed and heckled.
The security guards were young lads, they were silent, and at a bit at a loss. But Gao Lang loudly said: “You are rioters! There is no such thing! Go back! ”
When she heard the rioting workers’ leader speak out, Lin Qian’s first thought was:
Xin Baorui or Si Meiqi?
Her heartbeat began to thump acceleratedly, she turned to a far safer place to walk, and pulled out her phone to call Li Zhicheng. The phone wasn’t connecting, and then she heard a cacophony of loud noises, as someone angrily shouted: “Let’s fight! These guys came specially bring down Ai Da! ”
Lin Qian’s heart sank, and she turned gently to take a look, but all she could see was a mixed blur of men in blue security uniforms and dark gray suit. Punching, kicking, attacking from all sides, tearing apart, faces twisted sinisterly, all intertwined! In the dark of night, some iron rods came thundering down, but you could not know who hit the ground, you just heard a dull sound.
Lin Qian watched, her heart being whipped raw by the scene. She kept calling Li Zhicheng and the phone rang in her ears, but for a long time there was no reply. Lin Qian day was getting even worse, and so she hung up and dialled 110.
Then there were the other people around her: walking out of the building staff, the factory workers, the security at the door … … Some of them rushed forward shouting, but more people were like Lin Qian, standing on the outside but not daring to move.
At the same time, from the group of wrestlers, the leader suddenly looked in her direction, and then pointing to her shouted: “That woman came from Si Meiqi! Grab her! ”
Suddenly a lot of people were rushing towards the Lin Qian.
Lin Qian’s heart fell, and so regardless of the police, and the fact that someone was sure to come soon, she turned and ran!
It was Si Meiqi! Si Meiqi without a doubt!
Since it was a deliberate incitement to riot, the one putting them up to this was probably related to some nefarious people. Lin Qian knew it was useless to tell them to “stop” or “go away” because it would be useless.
She ran very fast, navigating agilely, and within the blink of an eye and she’d run away from the parking lot, only a few men left far behind. But she’d just jumped off the stairs to find that several of onlookers had gathered, suddenly blocking her path.
Lin Qian immediately turned and ran, but someone quickly grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back. The night was dark, and she was in the shadows where the light didn’t reach. Lin Qian just saw just a few tall dark shadow circling around her. Then one of them suddenly raised his hand, and with a loud smack, landed a heavy slap on her face.
Lin Qian saw stars, and felt a burning tingling coming from her cheeks, the corner of her lips immediately feeling something tangy and cold. Then they let go of her, quickly walking towards the gate where a crowd had gathered, the figure quickly disappeared into the crowd of onlookers outside.
Lin Qian stood clutching her face, tears pouring out all of a sudden, her legs feeling a little weak. First she stared attentively to the left, in the crowd’s direction, and then turned to look out the office building. In the vast darkness, everything seemed more and more confusing.
Holding back tears, she pulled out a cell phone and continued to hit 110. She had just pressed the first two keys when she heard what sounded like footsteps behind her. Her heart burst forth and lifted, quickly looking back –
b.u.mping into a familiar pair of dark eyes.
Li Zhicheng stood behind her, black figure standing tall, breathing fast and heavy, eyes quietly and firmly fixed on her.
Lin Qian’s heartbeat was thrown into disorder, but the sound of his footsteps calmed her down, and she looked at him, enunciating every word as she clearly said: “I’m OK, you go ahead and deal with everything. I’ll call the police, you take care. ”
Her voice did not betray her, and yet he still held fast to the hand that was securely clutching her cheek. Lin Qian looked at him, as he took her hand away, eyes stopped on her already inflamed cheeks, his eyes cold: “Who hit you? ”
Somehow, she didn’t know why, as she spoke, the tears she had been pushing down suddenly rose up again. She tried to discreetly sniffle as she spoke: “Couldn’t see him clearly, he hit me and ran.”
Li Zhicheng said nothing more.
His dark eyes gazed at her, his hands still clasped around her wrist, fingers warm and extremely powerful.
He stared, and Lin Qian’s mind suddenly went blank, her heart feeling more pain than she could bear.
At this time, two ex-soldiers of his who worked in the security guard stood behind Li Zhicheng.
Li Zhicheng looked at her, but his words were for the ones behind him, “Get her out of here. Don’t let anyone touch her again. ”
“Yes!”
Lin Qian did not to make a noise as he let go of her hand, turned and strode out.
Lin Qian left under the protection of the security guards.
Taking a few steps back, she saw that Li Zhicheng had stepped into the parking lot, and never turning back, walked towards the rowdy crowd.
——
Lin Qian was brought to the single-family house in the Security Department.
She stood on the balcony, with the security guards’ given ice pack, applying it to her swollen cheek.
The night was dark, and the distant parking lot’s hustle and bustle was hard to distinguish. She could only see a bunch of security guards, as well as workers in blue, going in and out hurriedly.
Lin Qian was on tenterhooks. She had no idea if Li Zhicheng, Gao Lang, or anyone else was injured, she did not know how things were progressing. Why hadn’t the police arrived yet?
Her cheek’s swelling has not yet faded, and her mind flashed back to the memory of the shadowed men, fear and hate coursing through her. She wanted to call Lin Mochen, and her hand even went to the keypad, but she dismissed the idea.
At this time, the security guard who had accompanied her emerged from the back room. He looked into the distance with her, melancholy on his expression. He looked up her eyes, hesitantly starting: “Lin Zhu, us and Ai Da… … Are we really hanging between life and death? We’re not going to lose our jobs, are we? ”
Lin Qian watched his serious face, a thread of expectant hope hanging there, but she couldn’t come up with an answer.
Just then, the phone rang in her tight grip rang.
Is was a strange number.
She answered: “h.e.l.lo.”
The background was noisy with loud music, conversation and laughter.
Bad feelings arose in her heart.
And then she heard Chen Zheng’s voice, that irreverent, tone coming through: “Lin Qian, fighting with me, did it hurt?”